Seducing Salazar COMPLETE
by FullMoonDreams
Summary: Prequel to Hogwart's: All Sales Final. Rowena Ravenclaw has made it her mission to seduce Salazar Slytherin. RRSS. Please R&R. Rated for safety though it is probably only a T.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer – It all belongs to JK Rowling – duh!

**---Seducing Salazar---**

Salazar Slytherin was everything Rowena Ravenclaw wanted in a man.

_Damn him._

The living embodiment of tall, dark and handsome, he was currently leaning nonchalantly on the counter of the inn they had decided to take shelter from the storm in. His raven coloured hair was tied back out of his face and Rowena felt her hand itching to pull it loose from its ties and run her hands through it.

_Damn him._

He was tall and slim and Rowena wondered how difficult it would be to drag him to the floor, tear off his robes and ravish him. She looked at the floor and quickly reconsidered. The place looked like it had never seen a broom and there were various creatures of the insect variety scampering around in the filth.

"We're a bit crowded at the moment," said the innkeeper, looking them over as if assessing how much they could afford. Rowena dragged her mind away from her fantasies and turned her attention back to the matter at hand.

"We can share a room," Rowena said with a smile. She tucked her arm through Salazar's and turned her brightest smile on him.

Twinkling grey eyes looked down at her before he turned back to the innkeeper. "Two rooms, no matter the cost," he said.

Rowena sighed.

Salazar Slytherin was perfect. Perfect hair, perfect eyes, perfect smile, perfect manners…a perfect gentleman.

_Damn him._

The whole 'not until we're married' line had been all well and good before his father had put the proverbial spanner in the works. Waiting a few months until she could drag him down the aisle was perfectly doable. Waiting indefinitely until his father had a change of heart…or a complete personality transplant…was another thing entirely.

It's not like she had to worry about her reputation. It was already in tatters after that little incident at the Slytherin family home two months ago.

Being found alone with an unmarried man was often frowned upon.

Being found alone with an unmarried man whilst sitting on his lap was definitely frowned upon.

Being found alone with an unmarried man whilst sitting on his lap with her hand groping inside his robes…well she'd always thought a good reputation was overrated anyway.

What little of her reputation had been left after that incident had vanished when her parents had ordered her to choose between themselves and Salazar; she'd chosen Salazar and the scandal had been complete.

Everyone already thought they were 'living in sin' so as far as Rowena was concerned they might as well have the fun since everyone thought they had anyway. She just didn't know why Salazar didn't agree with her on this point.

But if Rowena Ravenclaw was one thing, it was determined, and she was determined that one way or another she was going to seduce Salazar Slytherin.

* * *

Author Note: There is a full recounting of the incident at the Slytherin residence in Chapter 6 of my Hogwarts: All Sales Final story if you are interested. That chapter is a flashback and you don't need to read the rest of it if you don't want to.


	2. The Way to a Man's Heart

The Way to a Man's Heart

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Rowena knew this, just as her mother had known it before her. Of course that didn't help Rowena right now since she had Salazar's heart already. It was his body she was having problems with.

But a romantic dinner couldn't do any harm and so Rowena found herself downstairs in the inn wondering just how she was going to go about using her talents in the kitchen to seduce the man of her dreams.

"What is it?" Rowena asked as she looked into the cooking pot that was gently simmering over the open fire in the centre of the room.

"Stew," the cook replied with a toothless grin. "Best in the county."

Rowena looked at it doubtfully. The watery substance didn't look like anything she'd ever eaten and she wasn't enthused of the idea of partaking of the contents of the pot at all.

"Don't you have any nice venison?" Rowena asked with a hopeful smile, knowing that this was Salazar's favourite dish.

"Venison?" the cook asked, clearly stunned at the very idea. "You think anyone hereabouts wants to get caught poaching in the King's forest? You won't get no venison here."

"Perhaps some pork then?" Rowena asked, with another wary glance at the stew.

"You saying there's something wrong with me stew?" He brandished the ladle of stew in her direction and it began to drip onto the floor. Rowena looked down at the filthy rushes and gave an involuntary shudder.

"No, no," Rowena assured him. "I'm sure it's delicious. But tonight's meal has to be really special."

"Folks come from miles about for me stew," the cook informed her. "It's real special."

"I'm just not sure if the gentleman I'm travelling with is partial to stew," Rowena improvised. "Do you have anything else to offer?"

"There's nothing wrong with me stew," the cook stated in a slow and ominous tone.

"I'm sure there isn't," Rowena hurriedly assured him. "But perhaps I might use the kitchen here to cook a meal myself?"

The cook gestured to the fire and the pot hanging over it. It took a few moments but eventually Rowena registered the fact that she was in fact standing in what passed for the kitchen.

"May I use the fire to cook something myself?" she asked instead, offering the cook her most charming smile. He grunted a response and turned away with a shrug.

Rowena nodded in satisfaction before realising that she had no ingredients and no clue where to start. It wasn't that she was unfamiliar with the idea of cooking a meal, it was just that she'd never had to bother before. At her parents' home they'd had servants to do the cooking for the family. Likewise when she stayed at Helga's there were servants and an elderly house elf on hand to assist in the preparation of meals.

She wondered how hard it could possibly be to cook a simple meal. House elves and muggles could manage it for goodness sake. She was a witch, and an exceptionally talented one at that, a simple meal was nothing compared to the feats she was able to accomplish magically. Thankfully the inn they were in was a wizarding one and so she knew she could use her wand without censure.

If only she knew where to start…

"Where do you keep the raw ingredients?" she asked the cook who had now settled down on one of the benches and was watching her with a rather bemused expression. He pointed over towards a doorway at the far end of the room. Rowena thanked him and marched across the room purposefully.

The room with the foodstuffs in was dark and Rowena pulled out her wand and whispered "lumos" so she could see what she was doing. It didn't help much as she didn't recognise any of the items on the shelves around her.

"Found everything you need?" Rowena jumped and spun round to face the cook who was now standing in the doorway with a smirk on his face. Rowena recognised a smirk when she saw one, she'd seen the expression on Salazar's face on numerous occasions. She didn't mind Salazar's smirks, in fact she quite liked them. Which is more than she could say for the smirk on the face of the man standing in front of her right now.

"Yes, thank you," Rowena replied curtly and she grabbed some random vegetables from the shelves.

The cook wandered off again and left her to her work.

"How hard can it be?" Rowena mumbled to herself.

An hour later and Rowena was swearing a blue streak and cursing whatever fool had ever said that cooking was women's work.

"You sure you don't want to have some of me stew?" the cook asked as he looked sceptically at the two plates Rowena had laid out on the table. Nothing on the plates was still recognisable as edible food.

"No," Rowena replied with a shake of her head. "This is how Salazar likes his vegetables."

The cook nodded sceptically and she had the distinct impression he was trying to smother a laugh.

"I'm going to fetch Salazar," Rowena said. "He should have finished his correspondence by now. You wouldn't mind just making sure no one takes our meal by mistake, would you?"

At that the cook nodded his assurance in between guffaws of laughter at the very idea of anyone else voluntarily eating the revolting concoction.

Rowena sniffed haughtily and left the room to find Salazar.

"Are you ready for dinner?" she asked as she poked her head round the door. She drew in a sharp breath as she watched Salazar releasing the owl at the window.

His letter safely on its way, Salazar turned to face her and smiled. "Shall we?" he asked as he strode across the room and held out his arm to her. She tucked her arm through his and let him guide her back down the stairs. "And what have you been doing whilst I've been writing?" he asked.

"Cooking us a nice meal," Rowena replied with a smile.

"You? Cooking?" Salazar asked with a smile of his own. "I didn't know you had culinary skills."

"I have many hidden talents," Rowena whispered into his ear as she pulled him to a halt.

"I'm sure you do," Salazar whispered back. "But let's go sample your cooking before someone else steals our plates."

* * *

"It didn't turn out quite as I planned," Rowena muttered dejectedly as she pushed the food about her plate.

"It's all right," Salazar assured her as he patted her hand reassuringly. "I like it, really."

"You're lying," Rowena muttered. "I can always tell when you lie to me."

"I'm eating it aren't I?" Salazar asked. "Would I eat it if I didn't like it?"

Rowena shrugged and continued to push the food around her plate. "It's awful," she mumbled. "You don't have to eat it. You can just have some of the stew instead."

"I'm happy to eat it, because you made it," Salazar assured her. Rowena smiled at him but didn't fail to notice the rapidly hidden pained expression as he swallowed the food.

Somehow this wasn't going according to plan and she could barely touch her own meal.

* * *

"Is he going to be all right?" Rowena asked the Healer as she hovered over Salazar.

"Just a mild case of food poisoning," the Healer assured her with a kindly smile. "As long as he rests for a few days and takes this potion twice a day he'll be right as rain."

Rowena nodded as she gripped hold of Salazar's hand. Instead of seducing him, she'd only managed to poison him.

She realised that her talents clearly didn't lie in the kitchen and that she was going to have to try another tactic if she was going to succeed in getting Salazar to forget he was a gentleman.


	3. The Florence Nightingale Effect

The Florence Nightingale Effect

Rowena was never one to let an opportunity pass her by and even at her young age, she already had a vast amount of experience in snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. It was with this in mind that she formed her second plan seduce her beloved Salazar.

If Rowena had been born in modern times she'd have heard of the Florence Nightingale Effect but that particular nurse had yet to be born. That didn't mean that Rowena had never heard of patients falling in love with their Healers.

It was something that sprang to her mind the moment she took a close look at the Healer who had been summoned to attend to Salazar. The Healer was blonde, buxom and pushy…and that was Rowena being generous.

"You can just leave the potions on the desk and I'll take things from here," Rowena ordered with a smile as fake as the Healer's hair colour.

"I really should stay and watch over him for the next twenty four hours," the Healer advised with a nervous glance around the room.

_Yes, note the door and use it_, Rowena thought to herself as the Healer seemed to think twice about sticking around. Rowena wondered whether circumstances would warrant a tiny little nudge with the imperious curse before the green-eyed monster that seemed to have taken up residence in her body was brought firmly under control.

"Would you like me to leave notes for you, or check in tomorrow?" the Healer asked, some sense of self-preservation apparently having kicked in.

"Notes will be fine," Rowena assured her. The Healer turned quickly to the desk and hurriedly scrawled out the relevant instructions on a spare piece of parchment.

"Call me if there are any problems," muttered the Healer, more out of habit than anything else. Rowena nodded in agreement as she practically pushed her out of the door.

Rowena shut the door with a sigh of relief. If Salazar was going to be falling for his Healer it was damn well going to be her and not some floozy flaunting her magically enhanced assets in his face.

"You don't think you were a little harsh on her?" Salazar asked weakly from the bed.

"I can take care of you myself," Rowena purred as she rushed to his side.

"Do you know _anything_ about healing potions?" Salazar asked. Rowena bit her lip, knowing, as did Salazar, that what she knew about any kind of potions could be written on the back of a knut.

"I didn't like her," Rowena muttered.

"Clearly."

"Her hands were all dirty."

"She's just been cutting up potion ingredients."

"She was ogling you."

"Examining me," Salazar corrected.

"I didn't want you to suddenly fall for her and forget about me," Rowena whispered with a pout that she hoped looked endearing but suspected simply looked childish.

Salazar smiled weakly and stretched out his hand towards her. Rowena rushed across the room and took his hand in her own.

"I'm sorry," she apologised. "I'll go get her back if you want. I don't mean to get so jealous."

"That's all right." Salazar gave her hand a squeeze. "She was heavy handed with the herbs anyway. I can manage."

"You need rest and time to recover from…"

"From your attempt to kill me off?" Salazar teased.

"I didn't mean to," Rowena sobbed. "I just wanted to make you a nice meal."

"I'm just teasing you," Salazar assured her with another squeeze of the hand.

"I'm so sorry," Rowena sobbed.

"Stop apologising," Salazar ordered sternly.

"But it's all gone wrong," Rowena wailed.

"Don't worry about it," Salazar chided. "So I get to spend a few days relaxing in bed instead of travelling round in this downpour. It'll give Zeus time to find wherever it is that Godric's disappeared to as well."

"You've been writing to Godric?" Rowena was startled out of her miserable recollections by this news. Godric was always good fun and one of Salazar's closest friends. She'd met both of them on the same day and had been delighted to find that Godric was as unconventional as she herself was. If she still hadn't managed to persuade Salazar to loosen up then Godric was the perfect person to assist her in her plotting.

"I thought we'd go pay him a visit," Salazar replied. "There's something I wanted to speak with him about."

"What's that?" Rowena asked curiously.

"Just stuff," Salazar hedged. "Nothing important. Now be a sweetheart and help me across to the desk so that I can finish the healing potion in time for the next dose."

"I can do it," Rowena insisted as she pushed Salazar, who was struggling to sit up, back onto the bed. His head connected with the wall with a loud thump and he groaned in pain.

"I can help you with the potion," Rowena said as she scurried towards the desk, the small pewter cauldron toppling to the floor, the half-finished potion spilling out across the floor. "Bugger!"

"Rowena, I don't need you to take care of me."

"But I _want _to take care of you."

"And I appreciate the thought," Salazar assured her. "But _please_ can you let me handle the potions myself."

"But then I won't be healing you and you won't fall for me and…" Her voice trailed off as she felt her face reddening.

"Rowena," Salazar sounded hesitant and somewhat confused. He sat up again as he tried to lean round to look Rowena in the eye. "In case it's escaped your notice, I've already fallen for you. That would be why I'm defying convention by travelling round the country with you, without a chaperone."

Rowena snorted.

"What?" he asked.

"Chaperone," Rowena muttered with a shake of the head. Salazar was worse than a dozen chaperones with his sense of gentlemanly decency. That she'd managed to get him this far was nothing short of a miracle and largely due to the fact that she'd bribed Helga's maid to return home two days into their journey.

"I'll look into hiring a respectable young witch to act as your maid as soon as I'm well. I've already written to a few of the prominent wizarding families in the area to ask whether they have anyone who might be interested in the position."

"You have?"

"Of course," Salazar assured her. "I wrote to Helga as well. She really ought to be more careful about just what sort of people she hires."

Rowena made a mental note to write to Helga as soon as Salazar was asleep to tell her what had happened so the maid wasn't punished for being susceptible to Rowena's bribes.

"You don't have to hire anyone else," Rowena mumbled, wondering if she had enough magical trinkets to bribe another maid into leaving Salazar's generous employment.

"Let's talk about it later," Salazar suggested tiredly as he sank back onto the bed once more.

Rowena nodded and pulled the thin blanket over Salazar, smiling when she realised he was fast asleep already. She hoped he recovered his strength soon and felt another twinge of guilt at the position she had put him in.

She cleaned up the mess she'd made with the potion and settled down to write to Helga before he woke again. She wondered if Helga had any ideas on how to seduce the man who was sleeping just a few feet away from her and quickly inked a postscript onto her letter before she sent it.

Between her own sharp mind, Helga's dedication and Godric's unconventional ideas, Salazar Slytherin didn't stand a chance.


	4. A Most Unusual Wood Nymph

A/N: No excuse really for the long wait on updating this one. I have simply been writing other stories which turned out to be a lot more popular than I anticipated and have been concentrating on those. I do still intend to finish this story though and am working on the next chapter already. Sorry to those who have been waiting on this one.

A Most Unusual Wood Nymph

Helga's reply to Rowena's letter arrived the following evening, and Rowena practically tore the parchment from the thoroughly confused owl's leg in her eagerness to see what the anticipated advice contained.

"Not what you were expecting?" Salazar asked as he took in her darkening expression with open curiosity.

Rowena snorted and tossed the letter onto his lap so that he could read it for himself.

"You bribed your maid to go home?" Salazar said as he read the contents.

Rowena swore under her breath; she'd forgotten about that part.

Salazar chuckled. "I don't see what's got you so annoyed though, unless it has something to do with the postscript at the end."

Rowena folded her arms across her chest, stuck out her lower lip and huffed to herself. Helga's advice was pretty much non-existent, and her response to Rowena's plea for help was nothing more than a reminder that Rowena had in fact claimed to have done 'the deed' with Salazar some time ago.

"I didn't exactly say that we'd done it," a blushing Rowena explained. "I just said that we'd done more than she and Wilbur had."

"Oh, well that's all right then," Salazar sarcastically replied. "Don't you care anything about your reputation?"

Rowena's response was immediate and firm. "No."

"Nor mine it seems." Salazar's smile took the edge off of his words.

"Helga wouldn't tell anybody," Rowena pointed out. "She's my best friend; we tell each other everything."

"I know," Salazar said, reaching out to pull Rowena down to sit on the bed beside him. Rowena wasn't foolish enough to think that he was making the first move towards seducing her into bed…even if he wasn't still recovering from the bout of food poisoning he had suffered following her attempt at cooking them a romantic dinner.

"Reputations are just society's way of making sure people always have someone to gossip about," Rowena muttered.

Salazar chuckled again and passed the letter back to her. "I'm sure you and Helga can think of some way between the two of you to break down my resistance," he assured her with another smile. "Though try not to carry out any more of your plans until after I've recovered from the last one."

Rowena leaned forward to kiss Salazar softly on the lips. "Aren't you mad now you know what I'm up to?" she asked.

Salazar laughed and shook his head. "Surely you didn't imagine that I hadn't noticed?" Rowena's face, which had reverted to its normal pallor, flushed fiery red once more. "When you're not trying to poison me, your attempts are really quite amusing. Godric thinks so too."

"Godric?" Rowena blurted. "What does he know about it?"

"I've been keeping him updated on your attempts," Salazar explained with a grin.

"You mean that you've been telling him everything, like I've been telling Helga?"

"Not quite everything," Salazar amended. "Some things I just can't put in a letter. But when we visit him, I'll be sure to fill him in completely."

"Have you heard back from him?" Rowena asked.

"He's in some forest somewhere up north, looking for wood nymphs or something."

Rowena screwed up her nose. "That's a bit of a vague description if we're going to visit him."

"That's because he's probably lost," Salazar reminded her. "You know what his sense of direction's like…he even got lost in your parents' apple orchard for Merlin's sake!"

"How are we going to find him then?"

"Shouldn't be too difficult," Salazar replied with a smirk. "We'll just follow the path of destruction he's left in his wake."

-o-xXx-o-

Two days later Salazar was fully recovered and was eager to leave the confines of the inn once more. The weather had improved and they decided to walk for the start of their journey north.

Rowena had her arm hooked through Salazar's and was casting hostile glares at everyone who passed them by.

"You don't have to keep scowling at everyone," Salazar told her after the fourth man to receive the Ravenclaw Glare had recoiled in mingled surprise and horror.

"I'm sure they're all judging us, or wanting you for themselves."

Salazar roared with laughter. "I don't think that bloke is really my type."

"You know what I mean," Rowena chided. "The women all want you."

"Surely not all of them," Salazar gasped. "That last woman you dragged me away from was pushing eighty at least."

"I'm sure I'll still want you at eighty," Rowena pointed out. "Ergo, she probably did too."

Salazar shook his head and steered them away from the road and into the nearby woods. "This better?" he asked, gesturing to the deserted woods as opposed to the rather busy road that connected several nearby villages with the nearby market town.

"Alone at last," Rowena purred.

"Yes, but only so that I don't end up breaking you out of gaol for doing anything stupid to my apparently numerous admirers."

"I'm sure there's a secluded glen around here somewhere," Rowena suggested, though the woods didn't look as romantic and welcome as her daydreams would have previously suggested. "Do you remember our first kiss? That was in a tree, so wouldn't it be fitting if we…?"

"Actually, you'll probably find that the only thing you'll find in these woods is the local werewolf pack," Salazar told her.

"You're avoiding my question."

"I remember our first kiss very well indeed," Salazar assured her. "You flung yourself at me while we were hiding up a tree."

"You make it sound like it was all one-sided."

Salazar smiled and walked over to a nearby tree that had been uprooted in the recent storm. "Come here," he said, patting the log beside him.

Rowena did as he bade her and sat down next to him.

"It wasn't one-sided," he said quietly, pushing her hair back from her face as he spoke. "I remember kissing you back." He ran a solitary finger along her cheek and jaw line. "I remember everything about that day. It was the day I met you, the day I fell in love with you, and the day I decided I was going to spend the rest of my life with you."

Rowena opened her mouth to respond, but before she could say a word she was being silenced with a kiss. Rowena wrapped her arms round Salazar's neck and pulled him closer, deepening the kiss as she climbed onto his lap. She could tell immediately that he wasn't immune to her charms, but when she tried to slip one of her hands into his robes it was met with the usual resistance.

Rowena whined in frustration. "But why not?" she asked. "We're both adults and I can tell you want this as much as I do."

"Not like this," Salazar replied. "Not here, not yet."

"I don't want to wait for your father to come around."

Salazar smiled, and for once Rowena couldn't quite interpret his thoughts behind it. "Me neither," he replied. "Come on, I've got an idea of where to start looking for Godric. I'll apparate us there."

Rowena knew that it wasn't at all necessary to wrap herself so completely round Salazar in order to be taken with him when he apparated them away. But she couldn't resist, and she held on tight as they disappeared with a pop.

-o-xXx-o-

It took two days to find Godric. Two days of tramping – aimlessly, in Rowena's opinion – around various woods, and discovering that camping out under the stars sounded far more romantic than it actually was.

It was too cold, too dirty and there were far too many bugs and wild animals lurking around for Rowena's liking.

Her nights were spent casting freezing charms on anything that moved in the bushes, while the mornings were spent undoing the spells and listening to Salazar laughing at her antics.

"So, what exactly did this poor squirrel do to alarm you?" he asked as Rowena sheepishly returned it to its former state. The animal cast her a baleful look before scampering off up a nearby tree.

"It was acting suspiciously," Rowena insisted before turning back to the campfire.

"Would it make you feel better if I set up more wards around the camp?" Salazar asked. "To keep the animals away as well as any people?"

"I'd feel better sleeping in your arms," Rowena suggested.

Salazar laughed and pulled her into the arms in question. "You are the most persistent witch I've ever met," he told her.

Rowena was about to reply when the sounds of a strangled scream came from somewhere in the west. "Did that sound like Godric to you?" she asked, but Salazar was already gathering their things together and rushing towards the sound.

Rowena hurried after him and it wasn't long before they stumbled upon their elusive friend. "That doesn't look like a wood nymph to me," Rowena commented with a laugh as she watched Godric feed a rather vicious looking animal that looked like a cross between a warthog and a porcupine.

"You're the only nymph around here," Godric teased as he pulled her into a hug and winked at Salazar. "So, how's the mission going?"

"She's still trying," Salazar interrupted, easing Rowena away from Godric with a rarely shown possessiveness that caused her heart to flutter even more. "Where are these wood nymphs then? And why did you scream?"

"I didn't scream," Godric insisted. "I was just overjoyed at finally getting one of these lovely creatures to eat from my hand."

"Lovely," Rowena muttered, giving the animal a wide berth.

"Where are you camped?" Salazar asked, gesturing to their own belongings.

"About quarter of a mile in that direction," Godric replied, though he didn't sound entirely sure about it and his gesture encompassed a direction that could have been anything between south and north west. "There's a nice little waterfall there, if you want to clean up a little. I think wizards have been there before because I've never seen anything like it in this part of the country before."

"Are you insinuating something about our hygiene?" Rowena teased.

Godric looked her over appraisingly. "Well, since you asked…"

-o-xXx-o-

Rowena and Salazar arrived at the camp fairly quickly, despite the poor directions. Salazar soon set about securing their things while Rowena declared her intention to make her way towards the waterfall that she could easily hear was close by.

"You coming?" she called back to Salazar.

"I'll bathe later," he replied, not looking up from where he was adding their provisions to Godric's.

Rowena nodded and left him to it.

She saw what Godric had meant as soon as she reached the waterfall; it looked far too perfect to have not been touched by magic. The leaves of the surrounding trees seemed greener and the water clearer. The sound of the falls was almost musical and Rowena couldn't wait to wash away the grime of her journey beneath it.

She was standing beneath the pouring water, washing her hair, when she felt the strangest sensation in her mind. Her hands stilled and she frowned slightly. Her wand was on the grass near her clothes and she wondered whether it had been wise to put it down.

She stepped back from the waters in order to listen more carefully to the sounds from the woods, but she could hear nothing that sounded unusual…not that she was particularly familiar with the sounds of nature, by any stretch of the imagination.

"Salazar!" she heard Godric call. "You here?"

Rowena drew in a sharp breath and stepped back under the waters to hide her grin. Once she was sure that her face was carefully schooled to mask her delight, she turned round to see if she could see where her would be lover was lurking. She spotted him almost immediately, and resisted the urge to let him know that she had seen him watching her bathe.

Godric too had found Salazar and was talking to him. Rowena wished she could hear what they were saying, but the noise of the waterfall masked their words entirely. She could see that Godric was standing with his back towards her, though whether that was out of his own respect for her privacy, or at Salazar's insistence, she could not tell. Salazar's face was flushed and Rowena felt a thrill of triumph in that fact.

Soon, Salazar, she promised herself. It was only a matter of time before she wore him down.


	5. Revelations

A/N: Well, it seems the long break between the last two updates hasn't scared everyone away. I have been working on this fic all day and hope to have it finished this weekend. The next part after this will be the final one. I hope this super-fast update helps to make up a little for the long wait on the last chapter.

Revelations 

Rowena wasted no time in persuading the two men to move from the campsite to a place with a roof, beds and all the modern amenities. It only took two hours of subtle hinting and complaining before they were checking into another inn.

"Two rooms," Salazar requested.

Rowena's smirk soon vanished with the realisation that Salazar intended to share with Godric. She should have guessed, and cursed beneath her breath when she realised that it would actually hinder her progress even more than separate rooms had.

"Do you realise we're not more than five miles from Helga's?" Godric commented. "Why don't we go visit her?"

Rowena looked around the room and realised that she recognised the inn as a place she had visited before. She also recognised the innkeeper as one who had looked down his nose at her on several occasions. "Splendid idea," she replied to Godric. "The Hufflepuff house has lots of room and Helga won't mind putting us up for a day or two." Privately, she added to herself that Helga had more than enough rooms so that Salazar and Godric didn't have to share.

Salazar didn't offer much resistance and before too long they were on Helga's doorstep, bearing gifts – lunch in the form of several large fish that Godric had caught before they had found him – and plenty of gossip.

"What are you doing back here so soon?" Helga asked in surprise when she opened the door.

"It's been nearly a month," Rowena pointed out. "I really missed you."

"I thought I was getting in the way of your amorous quest?"

Salazar laughed as Rowena flushed. "You were never in the way," he assured her with a smile. "I had business to attend to elsewhere and Rowena was determined not to leave my side."

"So, are you back permanently?" Helga asked. "You know I have plenty of room for you both."

"We'll see," Salazar said and they all moved inside, before the threatening rain began to fall.

-o-xXx-o-

"It's like he doesn't even want to do it!" Rowena exclaimed. "I thought men were supposed to think about it all the time or something. Aren't they supposed to spend their time trying to think of ways to convince women to give up their virtue? How in Merlin's name do they do it? I'm practically offering myself to him on a plate and he still won't do more than a bit of kissing and hugging."

"I don't think all men spend every minute of every day scheming up plans for seducing women," Helga pointed out reasonably.

"Well, Salazar certainly doesn't," Rowena muttered.

"He's probably just trying to make sure that your reputation isn't any more damaged than it already is."

"We ran away together and haven't got married. It can't get that much more damaged."

Helga rolled her eyes impatiently. "Galloping gargoyles, you're naïve sometimes, Rowena."

"I am not!"

"What if you wound up pregnant?" Helga asked. "You think your reputation's bad now, imagine if that happened?"

"I don't care."

"But Salazar does!"

Rowena opened and closed her mouth a time or two, but could think of nothing to say. She simply didn't understand why everyone was so hung up on reputations, especially when it was her own that was at risk and she had long since ceased to care about it.

Helga sighed and smiled the smile of a conspirator. "You want me to put you and Salazar in adjoining rooms?" she asked in a loud theatrical whisper.

"Would you?" Rowena asked.

"Anything for my best friend," Helga replied. "After all, your parents have already insulted my chaperoning skills, haven't they?"

"Your chaperoning skills are impeccable," Rowena promised her. "Really they are. Just don't use them on me and Salazar."

-o-xXx-o-

Rowena looked around Salazar's bedchamber with an assessing gaze. It was a bright and airy room and everything was neat and clean. Not that she would have expected anything else from Helga. That was not what she was looking for though. Rowena was in fact deciding where to position herself in order to appear most attractive and alluring when Salazar came upstairs to turn in for the night.

She had excused herself immediately after supper, pleading exhaustion from the journey. Salazar had raised an inquisitive eyebrow and had looked far from convinced, but she had not waited around for him to question her.

She was dressed in her most revealing night gown, which was actually not that revealing at all, but it was the best she could do without buying a new one. She knew that it would be worth the money, but now she had been cut off from her parents she was learning to watch every knut.

She had borrowed some perfume from Helga, which - she informed her in a delighted whisper – was guaranteed to drive men wild.

Her paltry supply of make up had long since been exhausted, but Salazar had once commented that he preferred her without 'that muck' on her face, so she wasn't that worried about it.

All she really needed to do was find the best place to be for when Salazar returned.

She pulled back the covers and climbed into the bed. She frowned down at herself. "Well, this covers even more of me than the night dress," she muttered, climbing back out of the bed and sitting down on top of the covers instead.

Four positions later and she was still not happy about how she was being presented. The latest one left the post of the bed blocking her view of the door.

She was trying to untangle herself from covers yet again when she heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs. She knew immediately it was Salazar and tried to straighten herself and her hair before he reached the room.

"Rowena, what are you doing?" Salazar asked as soon as he stepped through the door.

"Waiting for you," Rowena replied in her most breathy voice.

"What?" Salazar asked, clearly not able to hear her whispered declaration.

"Waiting for you," Rowena repeated. She reached up to the tie at the neck of her night gown and pulled at it seductively. Her intention had been to casually and temptingly undo the gown and blatantly show the man in front of her just exactly what it was she had to offer him. It was just rather unfortunate that the knot in the tie was as tangled as the bed covers were and no amount of pulling at the cord would undo it. "Damn and blast it!" Rowena swore. "Why does nothing ever go right?"

Salazar chuckled and sat down on the bed. "Let me see," he ordered and Rowena moved her hands aside so that Salazar could make short work of the knot. Any fleeting thoughts she had about Salazar removing the gown, or even revealing so much as an inch of her flesh disappeared immediately when he re-tied the knot once more.

Rowena sighed. "What am I doing wrong?" she asked quietly.

"Nothing," Salazar assured her.

"Then why don't you want me?"

"You think I don't want you?" Salazar asked, obviously astounded by her assumption.

"You mean you do?"

"Of course I do, silly witch." Salazar shook his head and chuckled. "You're were driving me mad with how much I wanted you, even before you started your seduction scheming."

"Then why?" Rowena whined. "And don't give me any more rubbish about my reputation."

Salazar was quiet for several minutes. "All right," he finally said.

"Really?" Rowena asked, moving closer to him and resting her head on his shoulder.

"But not tonight," Salazar insisted.

"Tomorrow?" Rowena suggested.

"You should get some sleep," Salazar replied, effectively ignoring her question.

"I suppose." Rowena reluctantly climbed off the bed and looked around for her discarded evening robe.

"You can stay here, if you like," Salazar offered.

"And you'll take my room?" Rowena guessed.

Salazar smiled and shook his head. "I'm sure this bed is big enough for the two of us," he said as he stood up and undid his robes.

"You're suggesting we share the bed?"

"I rather recall it was your suggestion," Salazar pointed out.

"But you don't want to do anything other than sleep?"

"Not tonight."

"And you expect me to keep my hands to myself?" Rowena asked wickedly.

"Hope," Salazar amended. "I _hope_ you'll keep your hands to yourself, though I very much doubt you'll do so."

Rowena grinned and knelt on the covers. "You know me so well."

Salazar snorted pulled one of the bed curtains closed, stepping around it to change out of his robes. Rowena resisted the urge to peek, but only just.

-o-xXx-o-

The next morning Rowena awoke to an empty bed, something she wasn't that surprised about. She had never been an early riser and most people were up and about long before she was ready to face her day.

She dressed slowly and made her way downstairs to the kitchen in search of something edible for breakfast.

"Morning," Helga greeted her cheerfully. "I see your bed wasn't slept in this morning."

"Hmm," Rowena murmured in reply.

"Oh, no you don't!" Helga insisted. "How was it? What was it like? Did it hurt much?"

Rowena sighed. "Nothing happened."

"But-"

"But nothing," Rowena replied with another sigh. "We slept together, but that's all we did…sleep."

"You're teasing me, right?"

Rowena shook her head and picked up a chunk of bread. "Where is Salazar anyway?"

"Out the back with Godric. I think they're fixing the fence or something."

Rowena stood up and looked out to where the men were indeed looking at the fence, they didn't appear to be fixing it though.

"Helga?"

"What?"

"Do you remember that spell to listen in on people?"

"You mean the one we used to spy on my brother that time?"

Rowena nodded.

"I think so. But what do you want to use it for? I don't think listening to them talking about the advantages and disadvantages of wooden or stone fencing is really worth the effort of a spell."

"I don't think they're talking about the fence," Rowena mused. "Salazar looks uncomfortable and Godric looks…well, Godric looks like he always does…but I don't think they're talking about the fence."

Helga stood up to get a better view of what Rowena was seeing. She didn't look as though she agreed with her assessment, but like the true friend she was, she pulled out her wand and after cast the spell. Rowena copied her action and immediately heard the conversation of the two men as clearly as if they were standing beside her in the room.

"It isn't that funny!" Salazar snapped.

"Of course it is," Godric replied with a loud laugh. "You had the beautiful Rowena Ravenclaw in your bed all night and still didn't deflower the girl."

"It's not that simple."

"What isn't? She's throwing herself at you all the time, just give her what she wants. If she cares nothing for her reputation, why should it bother you so much?"

"It's got nothing to do with her reputation."

"It doesn't?"

"Of course not. Her reputation is in tatters anyway."

"Then what's the problem?"

"You've met my father…"

"Unfortunately. What of him?"

"Well, you know what he's like, how set in his ways he is, how strict?"

"I know he rules his household with a rod of iron," Godric said. "But what's that got to do with Rowena?"

"My father…he's…well, he's very much of the 'not before you're married' variety of wizard."

"You mean you haven't bedded Rowena because he wouldn't approve?" Godric asked. He sounded confused and Rowena didn't blame him. It wasn't like running off to her was something his father had approved of either.

"No, not…damn it…this is harder than I thought it would be."

"What is?"

"My father's strict, very strict, and he doesn't approve of…well, pretty much anyone or anything really…this with Rowena is the first time I've ever done anything he wouldn't approve of."

Rowena sank down onto one of the chairs as the meaning of what Salazar was saying sank in. Godric on the other hand was far less quick on the uptake.

"You've already run off with her," pointed out Godric, rather needlessly. "You've already done enough to get up the old goat's nose, why not the rest?"

"Bloody hell," Salazar snapped. "My father doesn't approve of sex before marriage, not even with whores. Before I met Rowena I'd never even thought of disobeying him. Are you understanding me now?"

"You mean you've never…?"

Salazar made a sound that was pure relief.

"But you met Rowena when you were what, sixteen?"

"Yes, and until that day I never once put a toe out of line when it came to my father. After I met her, she was all I ever wanted. I might have started to rebel against his other rules, but what interest had I in going to visit one of the local brothels? I didn't want anyone but Rowena."

"You saved yourself for her?" Godric asked with a barely concealed snicker.

"If you like," Salazar muttered.

"You're a romantic sap, you do know that?"

Rowena looked at Helga, who seemed as surprised as she felt.

Outside, Godric seemed to have recovered from his mirth enough to speak again. "I still don't see what the problem is?" he asked. "I'd have thought you waiting this long would just make you all the more eager to bed the lass."

Salazar practically hissed in frustration and Rowena giggled at the sound.

"What if I don't measure up to her expectations?" Salazar asked. "What if I mess this up? I can't lose her?"

"Lose her?" Godric spluttered. "The girl's totally smitten with you."

"What if she changes her mind afterwards? What if I hurt her? What if-"

"What if she runs out of patience?" Godric supplied.

"What if I don't measure up to that old beau of hers?" Salazar countered.

Helga turned to Rowena accusingly. "Did you and Richard?" she whispered.

"No, of course not," Rowena replied, her attention still on the men outside. "He was just a friend of the family and our parents kept pushing us together."

"Does Salazar know that?" Helga asked.

"Apparently not," Rowena muttered. She waved her wand to end the spell. "I don't think I want to listen any more."

Helga nodded and ended her own spell. "Well, that wasn't what I was expecting," she said.

"Nor me," Rowena whispered. "I'm going to go for a walk. I'll be back later."

Helga nodded and Rowena set off to walk to the village.


	6. The Seducer Seduced

The Seducer Seduced

Rowena wasn't sure what had surprised her the most in what Salazar had revealed. She knew she had to set him right about Richard as soon as she was able to, but she didn't know how to do that without revealing that she had listened in on his very private conversation with Godric. She felt a sharp twinge of guilt when she realised that she wouldn't have wanted Salazar to listen in whilst she was talking confidentially to Helga.

Whilst her guilty conscience was fully active, she could not help the small smile that had settled on her lips at the knowledge that Salazar hadn't been with any other women before her. She understood entirely his fears that he would not live up to her expectations, as she had wondered the same thing about her own lack of experience.

"The blind leading the blind," she said to herself with a small laugh.

She walked for nearly two hours before she finally arrived back at the Hufflepuff's house. She was half way down the path when the door burst open and a dark haired wizard flew out of it and pulled her into his arms. "Where've you been?" Salazar asked.

"For a walk," Rowena replied, pulling back to see the worry in Salazar's eyes. "I told Helga before I left."

"You've been gone for hours," Salazar scolded. "I thought you'd left me."

Rowena laughed. "You're not getting rid of me that easily," she teased.

"I wouldn't ever want to be rid of you," Salazar said in all seriousness.

Rowena looked up at him and knew that had she not listened to his conversation earlier that morning, she would have certainly been unable to resist the impulse to kiss him. Now, she merely looked at him and waited for him to make the first move.

Salazar seemed a little surprised that she had let the opportunity to kiss him pass her by, but he soon recovered enough to capture her lips with his own.

Rowena wasn't passive as they kissed, but she made it clear that he was the one who was taking the lead and that she would follow his guidance.

"Are you all right?" Salazar asked, pulling back slightly.

"Better than all right," Rowena replied, pursing her lips for another kiss.

"We should go inside," Salazar said. "The others were wondering where you'd disappeared to as well."

Rowena nodded and let Salazar take her hand in his own as they walked inside.

Godric and Helga were in the sitting room talking when Rowena and Salazar went inside.

"Your lunch is cold," Helga told her without missing a beat in the discussion.

"I think I'll just go upstairs and rest a while," Rowena said. "I'll be down for dinner."

Helga nodded absently and waved her away.

Rowena turned towards the stairs and was surprised to see that Salazar was following her. She wondered whether to say something, but decided against it. She walked past the door to Salazar's room and heard his small sound of surprise.

She turned to face him, her hand on the doorknob to her own room. "Sal?"

Salazar looked at her quietly, confusion clearly written on his face.

"I've decided not to keep pushing you," Rowena explained. She gave a small shrug.

"Helga told me," Salazar blurted out, his face reddening with embarrassment.

"Told you?" Rowena whispered, fear settling in her gut.

"Told me that you two had used one of Helga's spells to listen to Godric and I outside," Salazar clarified. "Don't be angry with her; she knew you would tell me yourself, eventually.

"I'm sorry," Rowena offered quietly. "It was a shameful thing to do."

"It's all right," Salazar assured her. He opened the door to his room and gestured for her to enter. She crept past him and sat in the solitary chair, her gaze fixed resolutely on her shoes.

"Aren't you angry?" Rowena asked. "I'd be mad if someone was listening in on my private conversations."

"I wasn't very pleased at first, but then I realised that I should have spoken to you before Godric anyway."

"He's your best friend."

"And you're the woman I love," Salazar countered. He sat down on the edge of the bed and rubbed at the back of his neck.

"Richard was only a friend of the family," Rowena offered. "There was never anything more than friendship between us."

Salazar's smile was a little shy as he asked "really?"

Rowena nodded. "There's never been anyone else for me. You're the only one I ever wanted."

"Really? You'd never kissed other boys you found hiding in your apple orchard?"

Rowena grinned at Salazar's teasing tone. "The others shut up when I asked them to, and I didn't have to resort to such desperate measures."

Salazar laughed and soon Rowena joined him with chuckles of her own.

Eventually the laughter stopped and a quietness descended on the room.

"Well, this is awkward," Rowena finally commented.

Salazar nodded slowly. "Highly," he agreed. "I'm sorry I'm not all you were expecting."

"Huh?"

"You know, suave, experienced…"

"You think I care about that?" Rowena asked.

"Isn't that why you're no longer trying to seduce me?"

"No!"

"Then why are you sitting over there, instead of beside me?" Salazar asked.

"Because I'm waiting for you to make a move," Rowena explained. "I didn't want to push you, not now I know why you were holding back."

"Oh."

"Do you want me to try to seduce you again?" Rowena asked with a sly smile.

"I've been kind of anticipating it all morning," Salazar replied with a smirk of his own.

Rowena laughed and stood up to remove her cloak. Naturally the knot was stuck again, and Salazar stood up to untie it for her.

"Are you going to tie it back up again?" Rowena asked teasingly.

Salazar shook his head and tossed the cloak onto the chair. "Not this time," he replied.

Rowena toed off her shoes and climbed up onto the bed. "Are you going to join me?"

Salazar nodded and stretched out beside her. "I don't want to disappoint you," he said.

Rowena slipped her hand into his robes, and for the first time she encountered no resistance from Salazar. Instead Salazar moaned loudly and inched closer to her, his own hands doing some exploring of their own.

Neither of them knew exactly what to do, both were acting instinctively and letting themselves be guided by the other's sounds of pleasure.

The bed creaked ominously as their movements became more confident and passionate.

Rowena and Salazar were oblivious to the strain they were putting the aged bed under until a loud crack heralded its collapse.

"Bugger!" Rowena swore as they rolled from the mattress and onto the hard wooden floor.

Salazar groaned and struggled to sit up. Thankfully they were still sufficiently clothed to preserve their modesty when Helga and Godric burst into the room.

"What in the world are you doing in here?" Helga asked as she surveyed the mess.

"Seducing Rowena," Salazar muttered as he stood up.

Godric chuckled and smirked in doorway. "You know, if you wanted some tips, you only had to ask. No need to destroy the entire place with your ineptitude."

Salazar swore and helped Rowena to her feet. "Come on, love."

"Where are we going?" Rowena asked as Salazar swept past their friends, tugging her along with him.

"Your room, of course," Salazar told her. "Where we're going to make sure to lock the door behind us this time."

Rowena laughed at Helga and Godric's expressions, which were the last thing she saw before Salazar closed the door behind them, locking it manually and with several strong spells for good measure.

"Now, where were we?" he asked.

"You were seducing me," Rowena reminded him.

"Oh yes," Salazar murmured as he ducked his head to kiss her. "Or was it you seducing me?"

"I don't remember," Rowena teased as she closed the final inch between them.

It didn't really matter who was seducing who, not as long as they were together.

The End

-o-xXx-o-

A/N: Thanks to everyone who has been so patient in waiting for me to finish this story. I hope you enjoyed the story. I know it isn't as long as my other founders stories - this one was actually never intended to be more than a oneshot.

For those who may not have read my other Founders stories and would like to see the apple orchard scene referred to (but without reading the rest of the story) you can find that scene in chapter 9 of Whatever it Takes. You will need to scroll down the page a bit though as it is not the whole chapter, just a brief flashback within it.

At the moment I don't have any plans for any more founders stories, though I do have a 'never say never' policy so I may return to that era at some point in the future.


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